Ricci M. Victorio

The Times, They are A-Changin’ (aka Bob Dylan)
October 13, 2008

The $700 Billion dollar bailout out has been approved by the Feds and Wall Street is still cynically bouncing up and down like an out of control rollercoaster. You would practically have to be living in a cave somewhere, cut off from all news media and markets, to not feel the effects of the roiling economies around the world. Closer to home, we are experiencing changes in the power of our dollar, changing (or disappearing) sales revenues, changes in our credit, home values and available equity to draw upon, changes in our staffing and how to accomplish with less, “stay-cations” over vacations and withering investments that are requiring us to reconsider our retirement plans.

How is everyone’s mood right about now? Feeling a little bit out of control and at effect? Or are you totally in your element, capitalizing and adapting to change more swiftly and adroitly than your competition?

The difference in whether you feel out of control and reactive
 to today’s economic crisis, or feeling you are making
 thoughtful, calculated decisions that keep you in control, may
 all be tied into what you believe about the word “change.”

Before dissecting the word “change,” let’s look at the word “belief.” A belief is a feeling of certainty – not always documented by proof (or it would be a known fact), but cemented in personal experiences and anecdotal information. They help us understand and interpret the world and who we are within our world. Beliefs give us definition, purpose and explanations for the inexplicable. Typically, if you believe something will happen, you will feel a certainty that it will happen and will usually do something to make it happen. Beliefs filter our experiences in life, of the world and help us to understand those around us. There are three kinds of beliefs:

• An empowering belief is a feeling of certainty which creates focus, meaning, emotion and action that leads to results;
• A disempowering belief is a feeling of certainty which creates focus, meaning, emotion and action that leads you away from results desired;
• No belief is a feeling of uncertainty, which creates a lack of focus, meaning, emotion, action which leads you to nowhere.

Let’s examine some disempowering beliefs about change that I have heard over the years from many different organizations. You may have heard or observed one or more of these behaviors:

The Ostrich (denial)

• I have no idea what’s happening!
• If I don’t acknowledge it, it doesn’t affect me.
• I don’t know how to do this – and what if I can’t learn? I’ll keep my mouth shut and maybe they will forget about me.
• I’m afraid of the consequences if we fail – what if we’re wrong? Let’s pretend this isn’t happening and enjoy whatever time we have left.

Sit Back and Watch (passive resistance)

• It’s happening, but I don’t care.
• Its uncomfortable and more work – don’t break my routine.
• Here we go again – it’ll be dropped as soon as the next bright idea comes along.
• Someone else tried it and it didn’t work – why should I go to all of this trouble to fail?

Reactive to Change (at effect)

• It’s happening and I’m making changes as fast as I can!
• There isn’t enough time, money or talent.
• Lots of risk involved – risk of loss of revenues, downtime during training and overall potential failure – how do we keep up with our normal requirements while adapting to this new change?

Recognize any of these behaviors in yourself or your organization? How, as business leaders, can we reconstruct this old paradigm of being at effect and out of control in our changing environment and create a new paradigm that change can empower our work force and organization?

My next blog, In order to win the game you must understand your opponent, will address what it takes to redefine such a powerful belief-set (or paradigm) on change.

Posted by Ricci M. Victorio on October 13, 2008 | Comments (0)